Novak Djoković

[jaccol55]

DJOKOVIC: "IT STILL HASN'T SUNK IN"
TRIBUTE


Novak Djokovic is the 25th different player to hold down the No. 1 position
in the South African Airways ATP Rankings.

Dusk is spreading over the Arabian desert and at Dubai’s Aviation Club, the site of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, Novak Djokovic and team are sitting up straight around a poolside table. A couple of hours earlier, in his first tournament since winning the Australian Open, he scrapped through a tough three-set win over Feliciano Lopez. Despite the victory, the mood at the table seems to be one of concern.

“Normally, we do not have these meetings during the tournament, but rather before the start of the tournament or before we travel anywhere,” says Djokovic. “We try make sure that the organisational and analysis part is good and that the communication between the team members is clear. It is really important to have good relations between the members of the team so everyone can produce their best work.”

Whatever alarm flag that shot up which caused the meeting must have been solved, because since then Djokovic went on a tear, going undefeated until the semi-finals of Roland Garros. After Dubai, it often looked like he was incapable of losing a set, much less a match. That very thing even attracted the attention of those at the Monte Carlo players’ party, where Team Djokovic’s quality control meetings were parodied by good friend Janko Tipsarevic.

At the end of 2009, Novak Djokovic said, “To reach that goal [World No. 1], I’m going to have to be very successful at the major tournaments. I haven’t done a great job at the Grand Slams, which wasn’t the case in the last two years.”

Despite making the final of the US Open (l. to Nadal) and a semi-final loss at Wimbledon to Tomas Berdych, the major highlight to 2010 was leading Serbia to the Davis Cup title. Whether that served as a catalyst to his incredible run through 2011 is anyone’s guess, but it is a pretty good starting point. You could say that Novak was now starting to tick off some boxes from long ago laid plans.

Novak’s journey began at the age of six years old when he was brought to Serbia’s Jelena Gencic’s attention. It was Gencic who discovered Monica Seles.

“When little Novak came to me I needed only one week with him to be sure,” says Gencic. “On the fifth day I asked him in front of his parents, ‘Novak do you want to spend the next seven, eight years training very hard every day, sometimes with smiles and sometimes with tears?’ He said, ‘Yes, I want to be great.’ He was only six years old but he had the eyes, and the heart and the soul of a champion. I was so sure that he would make it.”

Oftentimes after evening practice, young Djokovic would accompany Gencic back to her Belgrade apartment so he could watch videos of men’s and women’s tennis champions.

“Maybe that is how he became so good at imitating other players' movements,” says Gencic. “He loved so much watching videos of the great champions like Agassi, Sampras and Edberg. He would say to me, ‘Please, Jelena, explain to me how Sampras can hit the running forehand parallel?’ Then I must explain to this little boy which leg to stop with and which leg to transfer weight forward with and so on. And you know, he never took his eyes off of mine the entire time I am explaining him the technique. This child was so hungry for tennis knowledge.”

“There is one other thing that we used to do,” continues Gencic. “I used classical music to teach him visualisation. We would listen to a composition and afterwards I would ask him what he heard and what he felt. One time after listening to Tchaikovsky 1812 overture he says to me, ‘My heart feels blissful. And my skin is like the flesh of a goose.’ Can you imagine a seven year old boy feeling and saying such things?”

“I remember her setting up bars very high for me early in my career,” Djokovic recalls of his time with Gencic. “She always made me look at all the champions of the men’s and women’s game at the time to try and analyse their games to always try to have the winning attitude. And she also taught me to have a lot of confidence in myself and be very dedicated to the sport.”

While his improved serve, fitness and weight loss get much of the attention, those that know him best point to his mind and intelligence as his real weapon.

“I think his mindset now is just that he is a much better poker player,” says Mats Wilander. “He might be bluffing on the inside, but he is not bluffing on the outside. No one knows what he is thinking, he has a great poker face. And he has matured tremendously. If he was a five or six mentally before then he is a 10 now.”

Former World No. 1 Thomas Muster knows a thing or two about chasing legends from his time playing with Pete Sampras.

“I feel that he has really grown into his boots the last couple of years,” says Muster. “He has been delivering the results. He lost quite a bit of a weight and he is more flexible, with more range, and when he runs he gets more balls back. You can tell that there has been a lot of work going on in his camp. He has moved into a league of being a true star. Now things will get even tougher as the challenge and desire will be to remain No. 1.”

Muster mentioned something that all the coaches and players in the locker room have noticed this year. Team Djokovic has been hard at work. Everything from specialised balancing drills in the gym to regulated nutrition to pre-match visualisation sessions in private rooms has all contributed. But also, players point out his more offensive tactics during the point.

“Obviously, his serve is much improved,” observes Goran Ivanisevic. “But he is much more aggressive than last year. In my opinion, he was a bit too defensive in the past because he was so great at it. But now, he is much more aggressive. He attacks so much better.”

While his game and results speak volumes, it is his personality that has attracted a legion of fans around the world. Whether it is imitations of his fellow players, commercials, or his often colourful entrances onto center court, Novak Djokovic is an entertainer. Mansour Bahrami is one who can appreciate what Novak brings to the fans.

“He is great for tennis,” says Bahrami. “He does great imitation of all the players, which I think it is fantastic. During the tournaments his focus is great, and he is even more serious this year. The difference between us is that he is a great player and good entertainer. I am only an entertainer. When Novak wins tennis matches he makes people smile.”

And so far in 2011 Novak Djokovic has given tennis plenty of reasons to smile. Though Mats Wilander cautions that while achieving the game’s No. 1 status is a truly great achievement, it is not all fun and games.

“Going from world number three to one is much easier than going from one to three,” says Wilander. “It is great to be chasing. That was easily the best year of my career. The pressure of No. 1 can really mess with your head.”

That is a bridge that Novak Djokovic will happily cross now.

“I have always been going towards that lifetime goal and that is to be No. 1,” admits Djokovic. “To be the best is what drives me.”

Congratulations Novak Djokovic. The odyssey is complete and the dream has finally become a reality.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/DEUCE- ... ibute.aspx

[Joao]

Djokovic Receives Hero's Welcome In Belgrade



Around 100,000 people turned out to greet Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic in Belgrade.

World No. 1 and Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic received a rapturous reception on his return to Serbia on Monday.

The Belgrade native was honoured in his hometown as close to 100,000 Serbian tennis fans gathered to welcome him in Parliament Square, where he arrived on an open-top bus that took hours to travel from the airport due to the volume of fans hoping to glimpse him.

Traffic on the motorway ground to a halt as fans stopped their cars to salute the Serb on his way into the city centre, but he eventually arrived to a deafening roar as he leaped onto a specially erected stage, where rock bands had been entertaining the crowd.

Joined on the stage by his family, Djokovic held aloft his replica Wimbledon trophy and told the chanting masses, “This is absolutely unbelievable and I will owe you forever for tonight because you succeeded in making this day the biggest day of my life.

"The time has come to bare all my emotions to you and all I can say is that you are the best in the world because only Serbian fans can throw a party like this. This trophy is dedicated to you; this trophy is dedicated to Serbia.

"We have a soul that is second to none and with the team event coming up, I can promise you we will do everything in our power to win it all again," added the Serb.

Earlier in the day, Djokovic had returned to the All England Club, scene of his triumph over Rafael Nadal, to conduct a media tour, speaking to publications and broadcasters from around the world. The 24 year old is now set to travel to Halmstad, Sweden, for defending champion Serbia’s Davis Cup quarter-final tie this weekend.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis ... lcome.aspx

[jaccol55]

Djokovic’s Dream Made Real With Wimbledon Conquest
By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY

WIMBLEDON, England — It was the final game of an era, and Rafael Nadal punched the strings of his racket as if it were the culprit instead of the faithful companion that had helped him win 2 Wimbledon titles and 20 straight matches here.

Novak Djokovic, foreground, has won two of three Grand Slam events this year and is 5-0 against Rafael Nadal. More Photos »
Enlarge This Image
Geoff Caddick/European Pressphoto Agency

Nadal, left, and Djokovic after the match. “I can imagine how Novak feels today,” Nadal said. “It's a special day.” More Photos »

What has long defined Nadal is his optimism: his ability to play the point at hand without being weighed down by the baggage from the last. But Novak Djokovic has been simply too much for even Nadal to bear this season.

Djokovic has been better than Nadal on three surfaces and in four countries now, and there were rub-the-eyes moments in this Wimbledon final Sunday when it seemed Djokovic was toying with him, too. Although Nadal, a Spaniard who is a born competitor, managed to wrestle the third set his way, he could not find the form or the solutions — to borrow one of his favorite English words — to keep Djokovic from fulfilling his boyhood quest and winning the men’s Wimbledon final, 6-4, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3.

“The most special day of my life,” Djokovic said. “This is my favorite tournament, the tournament I always dreamed of winning, the first tournament I ever watched in my life. I think I’m still sleeping.”

In fact, Djokovic, a 24-year-old Serb, has perhaps never looked more wide awake than he did as he clenched his fists — no, his entire body — and roared with wide eyes and release in the direction of his supersize entourage in the players box.

The scenes of celebration were as memorable as the achievement as Djokovic’s coach, Marian Vajda, and trainers locked arms and jumped in unison; as Djokovic’s parents and two younger brothers raised their arms and then embraced; as Djokovic tossed racket after racket into the stands and kissed the grass, then decided to take it a big step further by actually eating a piece of the Centre Court turf.

“I felt like an animal; I wanted to see how it tastes,” Djokovic said. “It tastes good.”

It was enough to make Pat Cash’s protocol-breaking climb into the players box in 1987 seem positively understated, but then who could blame Djokovic or his clan?

“When I won in 2008 the first time, the emotions were very high,” Nadal said in his postmatch remarks. “I can imagine how Novak feels today. It’s a special day.”

Make that a special week. On Friday, by defeating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the semifinals in a match that was more consistently entertaining than the final, Djokovic assured himself of the No. 1 ranking for the first time.

Sunday’s victory was the cream on the strawberries, but it was also something much more substantial because it left no room for argument. If Nadal had successfully defended his title, he would have dropped to No. 2 despite holding three of the four Grand Slam singles titles. With Djokovic winning and often dominating Sunday, he is the player who has won two of three major tournaments this year, beginning with the Australian Open in January.

Djokovic is an astonishing 48-1 in 2011, his only loss coming against Roger Federer in the semifinals of the French Open that Nadal eventually won. But Djokovic’s loss in Paris was the big exception to the new rules. Djokovic has beaten Federer and Nadal — the two players who have defined this era — eight times in nine matches this year, and he has been stingiest of all with Nadal: beating him five consecutive times, including twice on American hardcourts, twice on his beloved red clay and now on grass.

“When one player beats you five times is because today my game don’t bother him a lot,” Nadal said in English. “Today, probably against me, he’s playing better than my level. Find solutions, that’s what I have to try and that’s what I’m going to try.”

Sunday’s victory was also Djokovic’s first over Nadal in a best-of-five-set or Grand Slam match after six previous defeats.

“For four years, it was Roger, Rafa, Rafa, Roger,” said Djokovic’s mother, Dijana. “Now it is Novak, Novak, Novak, Novak.”

Djokovic has perhaps never been better than in the second set Sunday. He took flight after cracking open a tight, serve-dominated first set by winning the only break point of the set. With the early lead, he began hitting high note after high note.

The set required just 33 minutes, and though the Wimbledon statisticians are famously generous, it was actually possible to believe them when they credited Djokovic with 13 winners and just 2 unforced errors.

“He was too good in that set, nothing more to say,” Nadal said.

There were ample opportunities for conversation the rest of the way, particularly after Nadal took advantage of Djokovic’s palpable drop in form and energy in the third set. The relentless, in-the-moment Nadal of old would have presumably pushed Djokovic to the limit from there, but Nadal could not summon the accuracy or the ability in the fourth set.

He made unforced errors with his forehand with time and space available, and struggled to control his backhand drive, relying too often on the one-handed slice. He allowed Djokovic to serve for the title he has been dreaming of since he was a 7-year-old watching satellite television in his parents’ restaurant in the Serbian mountain resort of Kopaonik.

Djokovic’s parents were skiers, not tennis players. He might have been a competitive skier, too, if the gifted tennis coach Jelena Gencic, the former mentor of Monica Seles, had not happened to give a summer clinic on some hardcourts just across the parking lot. She was the one who first saw his talent, first told his parents they had a “golden child” and predicted that he would be a champion.

Djokovic remembers practicing for the Wimbledon ceremony to come, holding up a small trophy and saying: “Hi, I’m Novak Djokovic. I won Wimbledon.”

Now, nearly two decades later, he was one game away, and he did not wait for it, even if he made Nadal wait for him by — as usual — bouncing, bouncing, bouncing the ball. At 30-30, he served and volleyed for the first time in the set, surprising Nadal and knocking away a backhand volley winner. He came forward again on the final point, and as Nadal’s backhand sailed long, he dropped to the grass and was soon holding and kissing the real thing.

“Getting a trophy at Wimbledon,” his mother said, “that’s why he started to play tennis.”

Karen Crouse contributed reporting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/04/sport ... ref=tennis

[Wąski]

After Years of Chasing, Djokovic Finally Leads the Pack
By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY



WIMBLEDON, England — Novak Djokovic has been the hunter for years now, trying to chase down Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. But he is No. 1 at last, and when he returned to Wimbledon as the new champion on Monday for his morning-after obligations with the news media, he was asked how it felt to be the rabbit, the one everyone else is chasing.

“I’m a rabbit?” he said, his eyes full of mirth. “O.K., O.K., well I guess I have to keep on running.”

That sounds like a fine plan in this hypercompetitive age in men’s tennis: keep running, keep pushing, keep searching for that small improvement that can help you maintain or acquire an edge.

“The better you get, the more you have to go into details, into small things, to optimize every little angle of the game,” Djokovic’s trainer, Gebhard Phil-Gritsch, said Monday. “In this stage, if we can get 1 percent better, he might make a big jump. These guys are so good. We are already talking about the optimum. It’s just a little bit here and a little bit there.”

It took Djokovic years to find the right formula to crack the top of the men’s game and give his small, onetime pariah of a nation its latest tennis highlight (Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic, also Serbs, have already spent time at the top of the women’s rankings).

Djokovic, who grew up in Belgrade and the mountain resort of Kopaonik, turned professional in 2003, played his first Grand Slam tournament in 2005, reached his first Grand Slam final at the United States Open in 2007 and won his first Grand Slam title a few months later at the 2008 Australian Open.

But it required three and a half more years of striving and searching for Djokovic, 24, to fine-tune his fitness, consistency and confidence and break Federer’s and Nadal’s alternating grip on the No. 1 ranking. The last time neither Federer nor Nadal ruled — at least mathematically — was Sunday, Feb. 1, 2004, when Andy Roddick of the United States was finishing up his 13-week run at No. 1.

Since then, Federer has accumulated 285 weeks at the top and Nadal 103, but this is now Week 1 of Djokovic’s reign, and — paradoxical though it might seem — he made it clear Monday that he could not have made it there without them.

“It’s true, there has been some change in my head,” he said. “But look, I have been working on that for a while, already trying to figure out the way to win majors and to win against those two guys. We all know how good they are, how they always raise their level of performance in the big occasions, and they are always performing their best tennis in the last four of a Grand Slam.

“Everybody knows that, in the last five or six years, this is the case. So I knew that if I want to win against them, at the semifinals and finals of a Grand Slam, I have to raise my game. I have to play on top of my game. I have to improve, and they made me improve. They made me a better player, and right now, there’s that mental switch that I have. I believe in the court much more than I did before.”

And right now, belief in tennis looks rather like a zero-sum game. How else to explain Nadal’s uncharacteristic lack of assurance at the critical phases of Sunday’s final? He had already lost to Djokovic four straight times this year in tournament finals.

“Sure that has an effect,” said Nadal, who explained without being asked directly that he felt mentally weaker in this Wimbledon final than at other moments in his career.

Though there have been reports in the British news media that Nadal has a stress fracture in his left foot, the same foot that required painkilling injections after an injury in the quarterfinals, Toni Nadal, his coach and uncle, and Benito Pérez Barbadillo, his publicist, denied there was a fracture.

For now, Nadal, ranked No. 2, will skip this week’s Davis Cup quarterfinal between Spain and the United States in Austin, Tex. He plans to return to the circuit in five weeks for the Masters 1000 event in Montreal. Djokovic, however, has not withdrawn from Serbia’s Davis Cup quarterfinal in Sweden on Friday, where he is supposed to rejoin the team that won the Davis Cup for the first time in December and helped set Djokovic’s magnificent 2011 season in motion.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/sport ... ref=tennis

[Joao]

Djoković kibicem Milanu. "Ojciec mnie zaraził"



Lider światowych list Novak Djoković złożył wizytę piłkarskim mistrzom Włoch w ich ośrodku treningowym Milanello. Przy okazji wyznał, że zawsze był kibicem Milanu.

Swój ulubiony klub zwycięzca ostatniego Wimbledonu odwiedził w piątek rano.

- To dla mnie wyjątkowy dzień. Nie zapomnę go. Zawsze byłem kibicem Milanu, ale jeszcze nigdy nie byłem w Milanello. To niesamowity ośrodek. Ma wszystko, czego potrzebuje najbardziej utytułowana drużyna na świecie - emocjonował się Djoko.

Dlaczego akurat Milan? - Mój ojciec był kibicem Milanu i przekazał mi tę pasję, kiedy byłem jeszcze dzieckiem - wspominał.

Z zespołem "Rossonerich" tenisista spotkał się już w trakcie ich zimowego zgrupowania w Dubaju. - Poznałem się wtedy ze Zlatanem Ibrahimoviciem. Powiedzieliśmy sobie, że jeśli Milan zdobędzie scudetto, to ja wygram Wimbledon - opowiadał Novak Djoković.

W maju AC Milan rzeczywiście sięgnął po pierwsze od siedmiu lat mistrzostwo Włoch, natomiast trzy tygodnie temu Djoković po raz pierwszy w karierze był najlepszy na trawiastych kortach Wimbledonu.

http://www.eurosport.pl/tenis/wimbledon ... tory.shtml

[Barty]

Why Djokovic needs to win 44 straight matches

It is not at all likely. Still, technically, it is possible.

Novak Djokovic could record tennis' greatest single season in the modern era, in terms of winning percentage. The 24-year-old Serb, taking a breather before the North American hard-court circuit, is an astounding 48-1 this year. A loss in the semifinals to Roger Federer at Roland Garros is the only smudge on his record.

If he stays healthy and plays in the eight tournaments remaining on his schedule -- including the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals and the Davis Cup semifinals and finals -- Djokovic has the potential to win 44 more matches. That would put him at 92-1, ahead of the best single-season marks on record.

The math: 92-1 (.9892), would be better than Martina Navratilova's virtuoso 1983 season, when she went 86-1 (.9885). Steffi Graf has the second-best record, 86-2 in 1989, which works out to .977.

No, of course, it won't happen. He'll have a difficult enough time getting through the maximum 17 matches at Montreal, Cincinnati and the U.S. Open.

People who understand these things feel that Djokovic is likely to hit a wall at some point and lose three or four matches, maybe even five or six. Although Rafael Nadal is 0-5 against Djokovic this year -- all in finals, most recently at Wimbledon -- you get the idea the quest for the No. 1 ranking will fuel a predatory fall. Can you imagine a Davis Cup finals showdown? Juan Martin del Potro, the 2009 U.S. Open champion, seems primed to find his form by the time the U.S. Open kicks off. It seems as though Federer still has another run left in him. And Andy Murray remains dangerous, even without a major to his name.

In retrospect, Navratilova's 1983 season seems almost surreal. The only loss was to Kathy Horvath in the fourth round at the French Open. That ended a 54-match winning streak.

Six years later, Graf nearly matched that.

In 1988, the German had gone 72-3, winning all four Grand Slam singles titles and the Olympic gold medal. She won her fifth consecutive major, the 1989 Australian Open, and took the next four tournaments. But in the Amelia Island, Fla., final, she lost on clay to Gabriela Sabatini. At the French Open, it happened again, when a 17-year-old Spaniard named Arantxa Sanchez Vicario beat her in the final. Graf would have equaled Navratilova's record if she had held serve at 5-3 in third set.

On the men's side, the standard is John McEnroe's 1984 season, when he went 82-3.

Thanks to Djokovic's 43-0 start to the season, new light was shed on McEnroe's fabulous 42-0 start to 1984. McEnroe, who skipped the Australian Open that year, was up two sets and a break on Ivan Lendl but lost the French Open final for his first defeat of the season. The second loss was to Henrik Sundstrom in the Davis Cup final against Sweden. The third loss, to Vijay Amritraj, came in Cincinnati.

The next-best men's season belongs to Federer, who went 81-4 in 2005. After losing to Marat Safin in the semifinals of the Australian Open, Federer won 25 straight matches before falling to Richard Gasquet in the quarterfinals at Monte Carlo. Then, after his third match loss of the year -- to Nadal in the final at Roland Garros -- Federer ripped off 35 straight wins. That streak came to an end when longtime nemesis David Nalbandian beat him in the year-end final at Shanghai.

Still, that's only four losses -- in an 11-month season. Going forward, that seems like a worthy (and reachable?) goal for Djokovic.

http://espn.go.com/sports/tennis/notebo ... ht-matches

[jaccol55]

Sukcesy Đokovicia stały się dobrą reklamą diety bezglutenowej

Novak Đoković wygrał w tym roku 48 meczów, a poniósł tylko jedną porażkę, dzięki czemu został liderem rankingu ATP World Tour. Przyczyną sukcesów serbskiego tenisisty jest specjalna dieta bezglutenowa, która wyeliminowała jego problemy zdrowotne.

W internecie i prasie można znaleźć coraz więcej informacji o pozytywnych skutkach wyeliminowania z codziennej diety glutenu, czyli białka obecnego we wszystkich produktach stworzonych na bazie żyta, owsa, pszenicy i jęczmienia. Đoković, którego rodzina posiada w kraju dobrze prosperujące pizzerie, musiał więc wyeliminować ze swojego menu nie tylko to danie, ale także m.in.: pieczywo, makaron czy kaszę.

W poprzednich sezonach tenisista z Belgradu miewał kłopoty podczas bardziej wyczerpujących meczów i turniejów. Zdarzały mu się astmatyczne napady, wymioty w trakcie gry, a nawet omdlenia. Taka ostra nietolerancja glutenu zawartego w żywności zdarza się u jednego na stu ludzi.

Jednak dopiero w listopadzie Serb trafił na lekarza, który trafnie ocenił przyczyny jego dolegliwości. Igor Četojević opracował też specjalną dietę eliminującą głównie ziarna pszenicy, jęczmienia i żyta. Na efekty długo nie trzeba było czekać, bowiem od stycznia do początku czerwca Đoković nie znalazł pogromcy w 41 pierwszych meczach, a 43 kolejnych od grudnia, gdy z drużyną narodową sięgnął po Puchar Davisa.

Tę serię przerwał Szwajcar Roger Federer, pokonując go w półfinale Roland Garros. Przed porażką w Paryżu Serb triumfował w innym wielkoszlemowym turnieju Australian Open, czterech imprezach ATP Masters 1000 w Indian Wells, Miami, Madrycie i Rzymie oraz dwóch niższej rangi w cyklu ATP World Tour - w Dubaju i Belgradzie.

Miesiąc później Đoković powetował sobie niepowodzenie w stolicy Francji i spełnił dwa największe marzenia. Triumfował w Wimbledonie, a już dochodząc do finału w Londynie zapewnił sobie pierwsze w karierze objęcie prowadzenia w rankingu tenisistów.

Zaraz po tym udał się na wakacje do Saint Tropez, gdzie przygotowuje się do serii turniejów zaliczanych do US Open Series. Cykl ten poprzedza start wielkoszlemowego US Open, który ruszy 29 sierpnia w Nowym Jorku.

Po raz pierwszy do przejścia na dietę bezglutenową Serb przyznał się w kwietniu, po triumfie w Miami. - Lekarze wykonali kawał dobrej roboty wykrywając przyczynę mojej alergii na składniki żywności takie jak gluten. Zmiana sposobu odżywiania się pozwoliła mi też trochę schudnąć, dzięki czemu jestem szybszy na korcie i mam lepsza kondycję. Ma to jednak też złe strony, bo teraz nie mogę jeść swoich ulubionych potraw, jak makarony, czy pizza mojego taty, a nawet chleba - opowiadał dziennikarzom.

W tenisie nie jest to ewenement, bowiem od dziecka na bezglutenowej diecie jest m.in. Amerykanin Mike Bryan, który tworzy z bratem bliźniakiem Bobem najlepszy obecnie debel świata i zarazem najbardziej utytułowaną parę w historii tej dyscypliny sportu. Podobnie jest z Niemką polskiego pochodzenia Sabina Lisicka, nieoczekiwaną półfinalistką tegorocznego Wimbledonu, w którym wystartowała z dziką kartą przyznaną przez organizatorów.

Zdaniem lekarzy nietolerancja glutenu może powodować słabszą pracę mięśni, przemęczenie, a czasem poważne problemy z oddychaniem przy wzmożonym wysiłku. Osłabia też koncentrację i ogólną sprawność. Jednak nie oznacza to, że każdy sportowiec powinien przechodzić na specjalną dietę, bo nie gwarantuje ona większej wydolności organizmu, jeśli się nie jest alergikiem.

http://www.sportowefakty.pl/tenis/2011/ ... glutenowe/

[Barty]

Novak Djokovic: From mountainside court to the peak of the sport

The new world No 1 and Wimbledon champion tells Paul Newman how a chance encounter at new tennis facilities when he was just six set him on the road to glory.



Novak Djokovic can party with the best of them and Wimbledon probably expected to see a bleary-eyed champion when he returned to the All England Club yesterday morning. Not a bit of it. The Serb said he had been tucked up in bed by 1am, at a time when the wine was still flowing at the Champions' Dinner in the West End.

"I haven't had time for celebrations," Djokovic said. "The obligations for the Wimbledon champion are quite rough. I had the official dinner which was nice, but it was long and I was too tired to celebrate."

The new world No 1, who was presented with a cake decorated in Serbian red, white and blue on the players' lawn on his return to Wimbledon, is likely to make up for lost time, although the biggest celebrations will probably have to wait until after this weekend's Davis Cup tie in Sweden. Nevertheless, a hero's welcome was awaiting him in Belgrade last night as the 24-year-old headed home, 24 hours after claiming his first Wimbledon title with victory over Rafael Nadal.

"It's a bit early to realise what I've done," Djokovic said. "I'm still euphoric, I'm still having the adrenaline rush and in the great joy of winning Wimbledon and having a great season so far. I have Davis Cup coming up this weekend, then after that I have two weeks of rest. I will go down to the beach, leave my rackets in the room and close my eyes under the sun. Then I might reflect on everything that has happened."

During that period of reflection Djokovic will no doubt think back to some of the crucial early turning points in his life. Yesterday, for example, he recalled how he might never have played the sport had three tennis courts not been built near to his parents' pizzeria at Kopaonik in the Serbian mountains.

Jelena Gencic, who discovered Monica Seles, was holding a tennis camp there one day when she spotted six-year-old Djokovic watching through the fence. She asked him if he would like to play and he returned that afternoon with a bag he had carefully prepared himself. He had even packed a towel and a banana. Within a month he was in the top group of players and won the tournament at the end of the camp, beating a 14-year-old girl 6-0, 6-1 in the final.

"If those three tennis courts had not been there God knows if I would have started tennis, because nobody in my family had ever touched a tennis racket before me, so there was no tradition whatsoever," Djokovic said. "I would have become a skier or a football player or a regular student.

"My dad was a semi-professional footballer and a very good skier, a professional. He, my aunt, my uncle were all at the top of the former Yugoslavia ski squad, competing in big competitions. That is why I have such a passion for the mountains and why I started playing tennis in the mountains. When my dad stopped skiing he opened a restaurant and my uncle opened a boutique selling winter clothes. They became ski instructors and opened their own school. That's why I was there.

"That is destiny in life. When something is meant for you to do, it is meant for you to do. To become a champion you have to go through ups and downs in life and go through some situations which appear to be very lucky."

Skiing remains a passion. "In the last four years I've skied maybe once, but I ski whenever I can," he said. "The rules about skiing being prohibited don't apply to me. I don't accept that in contracts!"

Football, too, is in Djokovic's blood. "As a kid, even though I loved playing tennis I had regrets about not being a footballer. I loved football. I love it today as well. I always enjoy watching that sport."

Djokovic's ascent to world No 1 was confirmed in yesterday's updated ranking list. With 13,285 ranking points he is more than 2,000 ahead of Nadal, another 2,000 clear of Roger Federer, the No 3, and a further 2,400 up on Andy Murray, the No 4. The rankings are based on a rolling 12-months points total, with a Grand Slam title worth 2,000 points and a Masters Series title 1,000.

The Serb is likely to pull even further clear in the months ahead. He has only 3,390 points to defend between now and the end of the year. After the Davis Cup and a holiday he will make his next appearance in what has often been his most profitable part of the year, the outdoor hard-court season.

He will not be resting on his laurels. "I want to improve," Djokovic said. "The example for me is Nadal. A few years ago we all knew how dominant he was on clay, but maybe not so much on the other surfaces. Nobody thought he could get any better, but he did. Me too. I still consider myself as a player with something to prove and want to improve my game."

Djokovic is especially pleased with the way he responded after Federer ended his remarkable 43-match winning run in the semi-finals of the French Open last month. "After having the incredible year and the incredible run to then lose at Roland Garros in a really epic semi-final to Federer, a great match, I'm really proud of how I recovered from that," he said. "I managed to come back in great style and win Wimbledon in a great way and that's something I maybe wasn't managing to do in the past. Now I'm able to mentally switch off and recover quickly."

Ending the Nadal-Federer duopoly is another source of pride. "For a while I've been working on figuring out a way to win against those two guys and win majors," Djokovic said. "We all know how good they are, how they always raise their level of performance on the big occasions and they are always playing their best tennis in the last four of a Grand Slam. Everybody knows that in the last five or six years, that is the case.

"I knew that if I had to win against them, in the semi-finals and finals in Grand Slams, I had to raise my game, to play on top of my game and improve. They made me improve. I have made that mental switch. I believe in myself on the court much more than I did."

Did Djokovic believe that Murray, a long-time friend since their days together on the junior circuit, could make a similar step up? "It's just a small percentage, the next final step he needs to make. The first Grand Slam is definitely the toughest one to win. But Wimbledon is nothing like any other tournament and people have to realise that.

"It occupies three weeks. You have to come the week before and have to prepare and you have to come through the pressure and expectations, especially if you're a top player and especially if you're in his position, as a home favourite, somebody who everybody expects to win for Britain. But he handles the pressure very well. Obviously, sometimes it gets to him. But he has the quality. That's a fact. He has the quality to win a Grand Slam, any Grand Slam, because he is an all-round player."

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/tenn ... 07023.html

[jaccol55]

Novak u Jay Leno.

[DUN I LOVE]

http://www.novakdjokovic.rs/index.php?jezik=2

Dłuższy czas nie odwiedzałem strony Nole, ale po ostatniej wizycie muszę przyznać, że jest naprawdę nieźle zrobiona.

[ginny]

http://teamcoco.com/video/novak-djokovic-bad-agent

Novak w kolejnym talk show

[jaccol55]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr5hGALr ... ture=feedu[/youtube]

DJOKOVIC RECEIVES ATP NO. 1 TROPHY


Novak Djokovic is the 25th player
to become the ATP World No. 1.

Novak Djokovic received his ATP No. 1 trophy from ATP Executive Chairman & President Adam Helfant during an on-court ceremony Monday at the Rogers Cup in Montreal.

“It’s an extreme honour for me to receive this trophy knowing the names of the players who have won this trophy in the past tennis history,” said Djokovic, the 25th player to hold down the No. 1 position in the South African Airways ATP Rankings. “Of course it’s a pleasure to receive it here, where I have won the biggest tournament of [my career at] that time in 2007.”

Helfant commended the Serbian after the ceremony, stating, “The depth of talent on tour is at an all-time high and we have great champions. That makes Novak’s accomplishments all the more remarkable. He is a truly deserving World No. 1. It’s a privilege for me to be here and take some part in recognising his incredible achievements this year.”

The 24 year old is making his debut as the World No. 1, playing his first tournament since winning the Wimbledon title, and is attempting to become the first player to claim five ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles in a season. He won the four he’s contested this year with victory over Rafael Nadal in the finals of Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Rome.

“It’s hard to compare tennis across years, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a time that was more competitive in our sport than now,” said Helfant. “That’s what makes what Novak has achieved absolutely incredible, so much so that it’s not just a tennis story, it’s been one of the biggest stories in the world of sports this year.”

Djokovic, who boasts a 48-1 season record, opens his bid for a second Rogers Cup title Tuesday night against former World No. 3 Nikolay Davydenko. No active former World No. 1 has won a tournament in his debut appearance at the ATP’s top player. View Shark Bites

Djokovic put together an impressive performance at this ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament in 2007, defeating the world’s top three players in succession - No. 3 Andy Roddick, No. 2 Nadal and No. 1 Roger Federer - to claim the title. It marked the first time a player had beaten both Federer and Nadal in the same tournament while they were ranked No. 1 and No. 2.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis ... rophy.aspx

[jaccol55]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfGsvcbS ... ture=feedu[/youtube]

[robpal]

Djokovic ‘Flattered’ By Ambassador’s Comments


Novak Djokovic is one of three Serbians
in the Top 25.

ATP World Tour No. 1 Novak Djokovic says that he is ‘flattered’ to be described by Serbia’s ambassador to the United States as the country’s biggest promotional asset. After advancing to the Rogers Cup quarter-finals Thursday with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Croatian Marin Cilic, Djokovic was asked to respond to comments last month from Vladimir Petrovic, Serbia's ambassador to the United States, who described the 24 year old as “the single biggest positive PR this country has ever had”.

“Obviously it's very flattering to receive such a compliment,” Djokovic said. “It is an honour to be able to represent your country. It's on you how you will represent the country. Obviously I'm trying to do it in the best possible way. Our country is small, but we do have lots of success in sports. We consider at this moment and in last 10, 15 years our athletes [to be] the biggest ambassadors of our country… We try to always make sure we make everybody see where we're coming from. It's great to have the appreciation of the Serbian people for what we do.”

Djokovic’s success has also fueled the rises of countrymen Viktor Troicki (ranked No. 15) and Janko Tipsarevic (No. 24), giving the country of 7 million people three players in the Top 25 of the South African Airways ATP Rankings.

Djokovic attributes the success of the trio to each member’s desire and dedication. “It's individual, I think, because we didn't have a long tradition of this sport in our country. We didn't have the system that helped us to become professional tennis players. So we had to individually have a big desire to succeed and have big support of the families. Everybody had kind of a different way to the top. But it's really great to see that we have this many successful tennis players in the men's and women's part, and we are a very small country comparing to other countries who have much bigger tennis tradition.”

Djokovic this week is attempting to become the only active player to win a tournament in his first appearance as World No. 1.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis ... tered.aspx

[Joao]

Reklama z udziałem Novaka Đokovicia

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmPtI1_G ... re=related[/youtube]

[Wujek Toni]

#27) Montreal 2011



R64 Bye
R32 Davydenko, Nicolay 7-5 6-1
R16 Cilić, Marin 7-5 6-2
QF Monfils, Gael (5) 6-2 6-1
SF Tsonga, Jo-Wilfired (13) 6-4 3-0 krecz
W Fish, Mardy (6) 6-2 3-6 6-4

[DUN I LOVE]

Kilka faktów:
* 9 tytuł w sezonie 2011
* pierwszy tenisista w historii, który wygrał 5 Mastersów w jednym sezonie
* 10 masters w karierze, 5 miejsce na liście wszech czasów:
19 - Nadal
17 - Agassi, Federer
11 - Sampras
10 - Djoković

To 2 triumf Serba w Kanadzie. Poprzednio Novak wygrywał tutaj w 2007 roku.

[jaccol55]

DJOKOVIC MAKES MASTERS 1000 HISTORY IN MONTREAL


World No. 1 Novak Djokovic celebrates
after winning the Montreal title.

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic made history Sunday in Montreal, becoming the first player to win five ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles in one season after defeating American Mardy Fish 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 in the Rogers Cup final.

Djokovic, making his first appearance since Wimbledon and ascending to No. 1 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, also became the only active player to win a title in his debut tournament as the World No. 1.

“History making, of course it’s special,” he said. “Of course, it’s an honour and privilege to be part of the history of the sport that I love and that I play.”

Though Fish looked the stronger of the two players to begin the match, Djokovic proved to be more opportunistic. He fought off five break points early on before capitalising on his first opportunity to take the lead in the sixth game. The Serbian sealed the opening set in 38 minutes with another break of serve.

Fish continued to create break point chances in the second set, finally converting on his ninth one of the match. It marked the first time Djokovic had been broken since losing serve four times in his second-round opener against Nikolay Davydenko. The Serbian conceded a second service game, this time at love, as he served to stay in the set.

Extended to a decisive set for just the ninth time this season and the first time since the Rome semi-finals against Andy Murray, Djokovic did not give Fish another chance to break his serve. The Serbian took the decisive break at 2-all, and held on to claim his ninth title of 2011 after two hours and 23 minutes.

“I think I was more nervous than in the previous matches today,” admitted Djokovic. “Well, it was the final. There was a lot of tension going on. It was a very close match. He wanted to win that match as much as I did. That's why we were quite intense. It was a mental fight, as well. It was not just physical. But I managed to hold my composure when I needed to.”

Fish, meanwhile, lamented his missed chances. “I felt like I had an opportunity today, I really did,” he said. “I had a lot of chances in that first set, ended up losing 6-2 early. If you try to forget who you’re playing against, you’re just playing another player, maybe you can figure out a way to get a break or two there. I had a lot of shots early in that first set on my racquet that I’d like to have back.”

Djokovic has now won all five ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments he’s contested this season. In his previous four - Indian Wells, Miami, Rome and Madrid - he defeated Rafael Nadal in the final. He has now won 10 Masters 1000 titles, including his second at the Rogers Cup. In 2007, he claimed the Montreal title with victories over the world’s top three players in succession (Roddick, Nadal, Federer).

The Serbian improves to a 53-1 season record (29-0 on hard courts), with his lone loss coming against Roger Federer in the Roland Garros semi-finals.

It was the fourth time that Fish had lost in the third set of a ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final, including a loss to Djokovic in 2008 at Indian Wells, and he expressed his disappointment of coming so close on numerous occasions.

“It’s really hard to get to these spots in the first place, and I've lost four of them all in three sets,” he said. “It’s really hard to take. I mean, just so much energy mentally and physically goes into going that far. I’ve never won one. I want it so badly. It hurts.”

Despite the loss, Fish still stands atop the 2011 Olympus US Open Series Bonus Challenge Standings with just two weeks remaining until the year’s final major. He has reached the final in all three of his hard-court appearances this summer, winning the Atlanta title (d. Isner) and finishing runner-up in Los Angeles (l. to Gulbis).

“It was great playing him,” Djokovic said. “I’m happy to see him doing well. I think he’s experiencing the best time of his career in the last two years.”

http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis ... -1000.aspx

[jaccol55]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAS3X3Z- ... ture=feedu[/youtube]

[Kubecki]

Djokovic in a New York state of mind



The Montreal Masters was very surprising in some ways, but in others confirmed what we already knew.

It gave us a lot to digest ahead of the final Grand Slam of the season. In the men's draw, I was surprised to see Roger Federer lose to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga - even if the Frenchman must be given a lot of credit for the victory.

The Swiss, back in great shape since Roland Garros, lost for the second time in a row against Tsonga. Already victim of a 'Rafael Nadal complex', I fear the same could happen with regards to Tsonga.

Without taking anything away from Jo, Roger worried me with his resignation; however matches of this type are essential if he is to get back to the top and start winning Grand Slams again.

Roger needs intense matches, challenging ones, in order to turn around the big ones when it matters most. It's the only thing he lacks right now - but he often refuses to enter into such fights.

Does Jo impress him? Maybe; he certainly should do. Such an attacking player, combining efficiency and power, is rare on the ATP Tour. Michael Llodra, Ernests Gulbis can hold their own in this way - but not at the same level as Jo in the last few weeks.

The slower surfaces have standardised an approach that was at first based on a solid baseline game; however he also takes risks, which can disturb any player.

Jo is constantly going for shots. His first serves always hurt so he can protect himself with this shot: he goes for a winner on every second serve while returning and comes to the net as soon as he can. This means the opponent is less free to play, and becomes afraid of this aggression. They know the set or match may be over if they are broken.

He is also more and more relaxed, playing with a good deal of spontaneity, which reminds me of Pete Sampras and Pat Rafter. And he is a respected player - it's a pity he had to give up in his semi-final against Novak Djokovic. He was tired after playing both the singles and doubles - with Stanislas Wawrinka - in Canada.

But now he knows where he stands as the US Open nears: he feels that the best players fear him and that he can beat them all. He'll arrive in New York with the best possible situation.

Not like Rafael Nadal, beaten by Ivan Dodig in the second round. With his five losses to Djokovic, his mental game has been hurt. His best ability is the way he plays the key points in full gear, without mistakes, and pushes the other player into errors. But today, Rafa is missing those key points and is unable to go for the kill when he has an opportunity.

His confidence was not an act - it was built on results. He was winning nearly everything and on clay he was unbeatable. He still has the same physical abilities, but he's not the same player. Nadal is special in the sense that he reached the top level without having learnt to lose. It gave him huge power, for sure, but the consequences can now be seen. Nadal is shaken by the losses Djokovic inflicted on him.

Yet Djokovic is not just anybody. He has just won his ninth title of the year and his fifth Masters of the season - a first in the tennis history. In his behaviour, he hasn't changed at all: in the players' lounge you can see him playing ping-pong with Viktor Troicki and he always looks chilled and happy. His self-belief is huge. He beat Mardy Fish in the final without really playing his best, but that's one of his abilities: finding a way to win even when he's not at his best.

Fish isn't on the same page as the very top players, but two things are interesting in the American who is now a top-10 player. First, he has lost a lot of weight. Tennis is a speedy game, with constant changes of direction - being overweight really hampers a player's balance and game. That is why a lot of players have lost weight these past few months.

For Fish it was a decision: it's a new proof that a sincere and accepted choice made by a player, at the right time, can help him reach new heights.

Those unable to do that are staying still: Andy Murray is one player suffering from that, reliving the same disappointments season after season without taking the necessary decisions to change things.

There was another failure in Montreal this week, where he lost his first match against Anderson. And again he said he didn't play his best... but all the top players know how to also win on bad days - ask Djokovic if he play dream-like tennis every day.

A word now on Gael Monfils and Richard Gasquet. Monfils is still playing too defensively: when things aren't going his way, he struggles to hang in there and fight. But he's still moving forward because he was already doing good things and now is doing them better and better. His natural abilities are huge. But the way to the top is still closed for him because he lacks the ability to play the key points at 100 per cent.

Gasquet is looking comfortable working with Sebastien Grosjean. I hope that after the US Open he will build a schedule allowing him to out together a winning streak, even if it means playing in the smaller events.

http://eurosport.yahoo.com/tennis/patri ... icle/2366/